Galactic Date: January 19 3305 | Location: Mawson Dock, Dromi System
18 Sep 2024Nathan "Spacecowboy" Anvar
Nathan came to the station's ICU. The lights above him flickered dimly but felt as bright as Betelgeuse. He squinted his eyes around the room, getting his bearings the best he could. He noticed he was in an older model hospital bed with dated healing pods pulsing over his torso and legs. He tried to sit up and that's when the pain hit. And it hit like an Anaconda. He felt his head go heavy and the room spin. An alarm on a screen next to him started playing, he assumed it was measuring his vitals. Within a few minutes a doctor came in. He told him what had happened, that the escape capsule saved him however not without being propelled into the station at about 100 km/s. The doctor shifted his weight before explaining that the impact compressed his spine to a point that his body couldn't stand more than .6 earth's gravity. "Even with the advanced bone and muscle growth repair module, there is no way to fully repair the damage done to your lower back. Not even the best machines of the Empire could reverse this… you'll be confined to life on low g or stations for the rest of your life." The doctor said, with definitive assertion with a hint of sadness in his voice. Nathan was stunned by the news. He talked through the rest of the details with the doctor, leaving soon after. In the relative silence of the room, the voices and noise of the station faded as he absorbed his new life. "I can never go home… I wanted to leave for so long, but to never go back? " he thought to himself, gritting his teeth in deep thought. Fear soon consumed him. The fear of failing, fear of what had happened to him, fear he had never felt before in his life. He blamed the ships - all of them for what had happened. All that fear soon turned into hate. For the next months he wallowed in self pity, working the lowest rank odd jobs around the station, refusing to fly his replacement sidewinder stored in the shipyard. He soon forgot he even had it. Just as any other day in the station, Nate soon found himself at the station's bar, where he kind of waited tables and kept the bar stocked - when he was sober. He came across a couple of so-called freedom fighters passing through the system. One was dressed in a worn but elegant, jet-back coat that flowed behind him. His accent was almost Imperial, which was odd for anyone in Federation space but still stern and commanding. The purple hair waving in the circulated air of the spaceport. Nate could see another commander, talking to the Imp, he was burly and a mountain of a man with a time worn Federation colored commander's suit, decorated with outlines of orange and old sigils that were unrecognizable - worn away by time. They were discussing a big hauler job when they got back into Fabian City. "It would need at least 3 ships to pull off the job.." said a heavy set, tall man. He was scratching his coarse black beard, looking down at a mission on a dataslate. "We only need one more able bodied pilot with a ship to make it wor…" was the last thing Nate heard as he intentionally ignored them at first, dismissing the opinions of stupid pilots who risk their lives. As the night went on Nathan found himself in his usual precarious situation of being too drunk to stand. While trying to deliver a set of drinks, Nate got tied up on his own feet and spilled an entire tray all over a pair of patrons who were almost as bad as Nathan. The scene grew from ugly to worse as 3 drunks lazily swung at each other in the low G environment of the interior of the space station. Nate, dazed and drunk, but on the offensive was able to get a few full mass punches in, given his extended time in Mawson Dock he knew how to use his mass to his advantage. His fist connected with the Imp first, barely feeling his hand contact flesh and bone with the inertia of his whole body. He smiled at the fact he was keeping up as much as he had to drink. This was the last thought he had...about a second later, Nate heard a loud sharp crack of a blunt object hitting the back of his skull and his vision went black..
The next morning, Nate's head felt like he had just gone speed bowling in Type 10 on the planet Strong G. His head ached and his stomach felt as though it might crawl out of itself. Just then bile rose to the back of his throat and he threw up all over the floor. He soon realized he was in a holding bay in Mawson Dock's detention center. He noticed two other people across the room and struggled to regain his sight under the brightness of the lights in the holding bay. One of them placed a progenitor cell skin patch on the lower corner of his left eye where a dark bruise had formed. Another man beside him spoke up, "Oh look, the princess has finally got her beauty sleep!" boomed the large bearded man. "Careful there Rex '',came a voice from the far corner of the bay. The man that had placed the patch on his eye walked out of the corner, the spot on his face healed nearly instantly, "the man might just throw another tray's worth of Latvian Brady over you!", the Imp chuckled as he walked to the middle of the room. Nate grumbled as his head cleared enough to remember the last bits of memories from the night before. He looked at the two commanders and started "Damn spacers, always thinking y'all are righteous in your decisions.."
"Right you are lad, there are things much worse in the galaxy than a mere bar fight, just be glad Rex here put your lights out before you get yourself involved in some not too nice commanders such as ourselves", said the spacer with a parent-like sternness. Nate could hear the Imperial accent in his voice. "Careful there Maddog, he's just a kid still that got lots of learning to do about the galaxy-", Rex’s chuckling sentence was cut short by Nate raising his voice with more prejudice. He was boiling mad, the heat of anger rising up inside him making him unable to control his temper. "Shut up both of you! The arrogance in each of you makes me sick - people DIE here each and everyday. All in the name of the grand Ole Pilots Federation pushing their agendas of the miracles of space. And you commanders play right into the trap amd promote more people to risk life and limp just because you have the means - it's sickening, it's horrible, it's ahggg!" Nate proclaimed, as he smacked a tray of metal cups of water across the bay. The two companions looked at each other, none had ever seen a kid this up in arms working at Mawson Dock, most were pilots themselves here. This type of animosity toward pilots was only found planetside. A long moment of silence passed before anyone spoke in the small holding bay. Finally, Maddog broke the silence almost with a tone that contradicted his name and said, "Look I seem that we've all gotten off on the wrong foot, we are all in here for disorderly conduct and will be for a few more hours. Let's rewind a bit and start with names. I'm Ecaj Nitram, everyone calls me "Maddog" now from my Federation and Imperial combat runs. What's your name?" He finished sharp but genuinely. Nate eyed them both, then let out a big sigh and said through clenched teeth "Nathan Anvar, just call me Nate." After some light interrogation by these commanders, Nate reluctantly shared the story of his faithful but rather unfortunate maiden voyage that had occurred, leaving him unable to walk under 1G again. The two commanders listened intently as they let Nate finish his tale . "And here I am alone and far from a home I can never go back too" Nate said, holding back shedding a single tear, trying to swallow what felt like a ball of years of emotions about to burst out all at once. There was a realization that this was the first time he has ever actually told this to anyone out loud. Truth be told, it was the first time anyone had asked..
Soon after Nate finished, an automated chime came on and unlocked the door to the holding bay. As they were processed out of the holding bay, Rex pulled Maddog aside. "Hey, he’s a pilot with a ship.We could use ‘em for the job in Fabian." Rex started.
"Were you not listening to him? He hates pilots and especially after what happened, he will never fly again. It is surely a blessing from the Emperor that he's made it this far!" Maddog stated plainly, a hint of Imperial arrogance coming through.
"He's just a kid, man. He hasn't even seen a world outside this floatin’ box in space. We just got to get him out of here and we'll have ourselves the biggest payout of creds we've seen since the skimmer runs in HR 4637!" Rex shouted, slapping Maddog on the shoulder with a smirk and a chuckle. “AND we when we get to tell all the gals in the bar how we did our good sumarian work, we’ll be unstoppable!”
"I bet ya a hundred credits he'll never say ye-", Maddog's last words cut shorts
The conversation was cut short by a sudden commotion near the back market terminals. The two were surprised when the skimpy kid they had just sat with burst out from a busy crowd forming from the dark corner of the station. They watched as within seconds, the large men followed quickly behind him. Each wore what looks to be rags decorated with a random assortment of charms and medallions. Their faces - dirty and greasy - the sign of living on a ship in the void for long periods. "Pirates..." muttered Maddog as he clenched his fists. As he looked back, Rex was already one step ahead and was seen running toward the docking bay. He turned and shouted "Better not waste a good opportunity then!" then winked as he passed around a corner to a nearby lift. Maddog sighed with a what-the-hell attitude and ran after the pack of pirates following Nate.
Nate found himself cornered under the large window in the bar overlooking the docking bay. He could hear the humming of engines as independent ships from across human space docked and undocked in the large hollow center of the inner spaceport. He was surrounded by no other than Jacob Cutter and his two goons, Garrick Roach and Vex Totem. Jacob rattled the bells on the hilt of his sheathed dagger. No one dares to kill a man in cold blood due to station security, however a dead man also can't pay back a debt. That known, Nate knew they'd just beat him to space dust just like the last time.. only worse. Nate was in a lot of debt to Jacob. Not necessarily with best interest rates, independent financiers often had a way of hacking pilots federation financial accounts to fudge credits from seemingly nowhere. Nate had gambled with the wrong person's money, fake or not, and was about to feel every credit right in his face. In that moment, Nathan felt the hairs on his neck and arms stand on end. His instincts kicked in and he felt the urge something was behind him. As he glanced above himself he saw a massive Anaconda class cargo ship - just as his eyes moved behind him his eyes were almost blinded by the bright nose of an Imperial Cutter. As his eyes adjusted he caught the sight of someone familiar in the cockpit… "Maddog?" Nate thought to himself. At that moment, the whole station shook and the sound of glass shattering filled the area of the bar. In the confusion, the pirates were disbanded and screams of civilians rushed out of the bar. Before Nate could react, Rex grabbed him, almost tackling him to the floor. "Follow me!" Rex shouted, the look of urgency in his face. He pointed to the elevator bays and they bolted.
Running on to the large hanger pad took ages. As they made their way to the bridge of the Anaconda, Rex jumped into the pilot's chair and typed in a series of codes through to the station control tower. Anaconda’s were the do-it-all of the galaxy. Stout and tough but also a massive 152 ft behemoth. The lift groaned with the studden inertia and jolted them up into the station docking bay, a wide open huge rotating hollow cube octahedron which stretched to a wide 2 km diameter from tip to tip. Just as the magnetic clamps disengaged, Rex punched the vertical thruster making the ship groan and creak as the heavy thrusters began to work its way out of the machine. Soon they shot up and sped out of the space station and into the inky blackness of space. The intense noise of the station and the ship peeled away and only the hum of the ship's engines filled the empty space of the cockpit. Nathan felt himself sink into the gel of the chair and soon started to feel lightheaded and dizzy, his vision fading into black as he heard the ship's computer chime "Frame Shift Drive charging" in an automated human voice. His mind echoed with those words as Rex and Nate, were shot through a higher-dimensional region at superluminal speeds, leaving the carnage of Mawson Dock behind.